


This Amber Flush

by theRadioStarr



Series: Of Roses and Mountain Flowers [2]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Femslash, OC shipping - Freeform, Original Character-centric, oc x oc - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-18
Updated: 2015-09-18
Packaged: 2018-04-21 08:10:05
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4821686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theRadioStarr/pseuds/theRadioStarr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Evie Trevelyan and Lupa Lavellan have been lucky so far: they haven’t spotted a single person on their journey to the Conclave, friendly or hostile. After their night of revelry, the girls would be content to relax for at least one more day. </p><p>Of course, just because they want to relax, doesn’t mean they can. Lupa catches wind of some Templars about half a day’s march ahead of them, near their chosen path. </p><p>What could possibly go wrong?</p>
            </blockquote>





	This Amber Flush

**Author's Note:**

  * For [xStephyG](https://archiveofourown.org/users/xStephyG/gifts).



> Evie Trevelyan belongs to xStephyG. Lupa Lavellan is my own! 
> 
> This work conceived and written by theRadioStarr.

Evie woke slowly, the cold, hard ground beneath her not enough to spur her into immediate action. Memories of the night before flooded her mind immediately, and she smiled, curling on her side and hugging herself tight for fear that the butterflies in her stomach might carry it away from her. She fought back the giggling that threatened to bubble up her throat, not wanting to disturb Lupa.

Which was about the time she realized that she was lying alone.

She relaxed slowly, rolling onto her back as the giddy butterflies turned anxious. Had something happened to her? If there was, then Evie would have had something happen to her, too, she was sure, so that couldn’t be it. Has she somehow offended the elf last night with her heavy pillow talk? No, she didn’t think that could be it, either.

Maybe Lupa just wasn’t interested in more than a one-night fling.

Evie opened her eyes, and panicked for a few seconds, forgetting that they had camped in the edge of the forest. When she remembered properly where they were, she sat up slowly and stretched, her blanket falling down to her lap and leaving her bare chest exposed.

She found Lupa sitting on the other side of the fire in her armour, a strange mish mash of woven fabric and chainmail. It suited her – it was very elven, and clearly made to fit her and no one else. She had her legs crossed in front of her, her palms resting on her knees. Her extra four eyes were staring unforgivingly at Evie, but her own eyes were closed softly.

There was a strange, bitter smell in the air, and it took Evie a few moments to identify it as deathroot. She looked around for a mass of white fur, but Romulus was nowhere in sight.

Evie sighed quietly and turned to her pack to grab clean clothes for the day. She had just finished pulling on a pair of smalls and securing her breastband in place when she heard Lupa’s voice drift over from across the fire.

“Good morning,” the elf purred as she stood and made her way to Evie. The butterflies in her stomach exploded again, and she flushed with worry. Lupa plopped down again at the end of the bedrolls. “Here, before you get too much further with that, let me check your feet for you.”

Lupa watched her stretch out again with a tender smile, and she rubbed her hands together before gently grabbing one of Evie’s feet. She squirmed at the light contact, and Lupa’s smile turned mischievous.

“Ticklish?” she teased, drawing feather-light lines across the bottom of Evie’s foot. Evie laughed against her will and kicked, but Lupa dug her fingers in just enough that it didn’t tickle anymore.

Deft fingers poked and prodded in all the right places to erase the lingering pain from the day before, and then she carefully put that foot down to repeat the process on the other.

“No blisters. Good,” Lupa announced. “How do they feel?”

“Much better,” Evie admitted a little sheepishly.

Lupa nodded, pushing herself up onto her knees and landing heavily with her hands on either side of Evie’s hips. Her face was so close that Evie could have counted her eyelashes, if she wanted to.

Lupa’s confident smirk started to fade as Evie stared at her, surprised for a few seconds by her closeness. She realized at the last second, as Lupa looked down at the ground and was about to pull away, that she had been silently asking for a kiss.

Evie lunged forward, their noses pressed together as she desperately sought to claim the elf’s lips, lightheaded with relief. They both gently tipped their chins as it went on a little longer.

“Hey there, Evie,” Lupa said when they pulled apart. “Where’ve you been?”

Evie finally let her giggle out. “Well, I was… scared.”

“Scared of what?” Lupa asked as she stood.

“Scared that last night was a one-time thing,” Evie admitted, barely whispering.

Lupa’s gaze was heavy on her. “That’s not how I am, Evie.”

Evie smiled as she pulled a shirt over her head. “Well, now I know.”

A minute or so of silence fell between them. “You have some sort of armour, don’t you?”

Evie frowned at her. “Of course I do… why?”

Lupa shook her head slowly. “There are some Templars on our route today. I stumbled across them while I was dreaming.” She reached up and tucked a strand of hair behind Evie’s hair for her, her magic smoothing it out carefully. “I think if we stay close to the forest edge, we’ll be relatively safe – we can duck in once we see them, and hopefully they’ll pass us by. But I’d rather we were prepared for a fight, either way. I don’t know if they’re hostile or not.”

“Lupa, I – I can’t fight,” Evie blurted out, her voice high and a little panicked. She had to admit that they had been lucky to face absolutely no opposition as of yet, but this was one of her biggest fears. They could do  _nothing_  against Templars. “My mentor, Lydia, she wrote me off as useless with the elements. I can warm and cool water, spark a fire, and make my own hair stand on end, but that’s about it.”

“You won’t need to fight, not if I can help it,” Lupa promised her fiercely, and she nodded, only partially pacified by the thought. “Besides, I think I have an edge over these Chantry Templars of yours.”

“You think so?” Evie asked nervously.

“Have you seen the true extent of Dalish magic before?” Lupa asked her.

“No,” she answered.

Lupa’s smile was wicked. “Neither have they.”

*                             *                             *

Evie was on edge.

She had been since Lupa warned her about the Templars. They hadn’t run in to them yet; Romulus had been scouting out ahead of them when she woke, and they’d determined that they wouldn’t run into them until at least the afternoon. But her knuckles were white on the grip of her staff, and she was sure both her and Lupa had lost circulation in their fingers where they were entwined between them.

They stayed to the forest edge, just as Lupa had suggested. The cover from the trees helped protect them from the glaring sun in the cloudless sky, but they were both starting to feel the difference in temperature – it was  _cold_  in Ferelden, and they were still riding the tail-end of their winter. Lupa, being so much smaller and leaner, was actually shivering next to her.

“Do you want to stop and pull out an extra layer?” Evie offered quietly.

“P-P-Probably a g-good i-i-i-idea,” she chattered out.

Evie unwound her fingers from Lupa’s and immediately dropped her pack from her shoulders, pulling it open and grabbing the first clean shirt she saw. “Here, this should fit over your armour better.”

Lupa immediately pulled it over her head. It got caught on her ears, and Evie giggled at the sight as she fixed it for her. She could hear Lupa’s earrings _clinking_  together softly as the collar of the shirt grazed them.

“Oh that’s so much better already,” Lupa sighed with a violent shiver. “Thank you.”

“Come here, I’ll help you warm up.” She held her arms open, and Lupa walked into them gratefully, her hands finding Evie’s waist as she wrapped as much of herself around the shivering elf as she could standing. Evie rested her cheek on the top of Lupa’s head affectionately, breathing in the smell of her hair.

They stood that way for a few minutes, and Evie felt herself beginning to relax for the first time that day. They could get through this, Lupa was confident, and there was nothing saying these Templars were even going to try to fight them. Maybe they were headed to the Conclave, too – would they want to travel together? Evie wasn’t sure she would want to, if it meant her and Lupa couldn’t be quite so open with each other.

She felt Lupa take in a deep breath of air against her, and she started to pull away. “Okay, I think we shou-”

She was cut off by a growl sounding deep in Romulus’ chest, and she whipped around, her ears pulling back half an inch as they listened. Evie’s stomach dropped, but she found herself thinking about how much a part of the other Lupa and Romulus were as they stood motionless together, listening and watching.

Lupa bent and snatched up Evie’s pack. Evie immediately reached out and swung it over her shoulders. “ _Fenedhis,”_  Lupa swore. “They’ve caught your scent.”

“They’ve what?” Evie asked incredulously as Lupa grabbed her hand again and broke into a sprint into the trees.

“I’ll explain later,” Lupa called over her shoulder. The trees thickened, and they slowed their pace. “Here.”

Lupa had stopped them in a small clearing, not unlike the one they’d stayed in the night before. It was a tight fit, barely enough room for the two of them to spin their staves. They fell quiet, the only sounds that of the birds and their own harsh breathing.

A twig snapped, distant but too close for comfort. Lupa swore again and turned to Evie.

“Evelyn, listen to me,” she said as she grabbed the sides of Evie’s face. “Your job is to keep a barrier up as often as you can, and try to distract them from you however you can.”

“They’re going to wipe your mana pool away!” Evie was on the verge of hysterics. How were they going to survive this if it came to a fight?

“Do you trust me? And Rom?”

“Yes,” Evie answered immediately.

“Then no matter what happens, don’t be afraid, and don’t move.”

The clearing was quiet again. Evie prepared to stand her ground, and heard whistling faintly from the direction they’d come from.

“I think we’ve got ‘em, Knight-Lieutenant,” a man said, his voice drifting through the trees. It must have been the Templar who was whistling, because it had stopped.

All of a sudden, something around Evie changed: it was as if the forest had come alive around her, the smell of rich earth and crisp greens and dense fur surrounding her in a heady haze.

“OY!” came a shout ahead.

“I thought there was only one?”

“Well, there ain’t anymore. Still no more than we can handle, though, is it?”

“Enough. You’re giving our position away.”

 _The crunching leaves and twigs can do that just as well,_  Evie thought to herself.  _Wait, they thought it was just me? How come they didn’t know about Lupa?_

There were sounds coming from all directions now, and it was hard to tell who was coming from where. They waited, the harsh sounds of their breathing loud in their ears, and Lupa turned to give her a small nod.

Evie called up a barrier for the both of them at the same time that a ring of tree roots exploded from the ground around her, waving gently towards the sky and circling her in.

“ _Lupa?_ ”

“Trust me, love, they’ll protect you!”

Evie took a deep breath, and almost screamed when the first arrow shot out from between the trees, stopping dead against Lupa’s barrier and falling at her feet. Evie felt the Templars pull her mana away, and she shivered at the loss of it, gripping her staff tightly as she reached for a lyrium potion.

There were four Templars altogether – a woman, who Evie believed to be the Knight-Lieutenant, and three Knights-Templar. They had forgone their helms, even changing into lighter travelling gear in favour of the heavy plate they would have worn in a Circle. They seemed so  _small_  without their heavy armour in place.

They all had swords and shields drawn, which meant there was one more in the woods somewhere. She processed this as she feverishly uncorked and downed her potion in one swig, and kept a careful eye on Lupa as she waited for it to take effect enough that she could do  _something_.

Lupa was ducking and dodging, but really, she was acting on instinct; a Templar would swing at the roots surrounding her, and one would shoot out and turn the Templar’s wrist, rendering the cut useless. When he would try to stab, they would weave around the blade and wrench it from his hand.

Evie ducked when an eagle cried overhead and dove straight into the face of a nearby Templar, one that had been coming for her. Its claws tore and bloodied the Templar’s face, and he roared his rage. He tried to wipe the blood out of his shredded eyes, but before he could, he was tackled to the ground by a small brown and grey wolf.

Evie screwed her eyes shut, and didn’t open them until the Templar’s high-pitched screaming cut off with a gurgle.

When she opened them, she was astounded, her eyes growing wide and mouth falling open in awe at the chaos on the field around her. It was like the forest really  _had_ come to life, trees swaying angrily and birds swooping in to attack, leaving the Templars vulnerable to the pack of wolves that were stalking the field.

Evie’s mana pool still hadn’t built up enough, and she swore softly to herself when she realized that Lupa’s barrier was deteriorating, a pile of failed shots from the archer in the woods at her feet. One more whizzed through the air at her, and Evie prayed her barrier would hold out-

The clearing seemed to go silent as Lupa cried out, and Evie felt the ghost of her pain as the arrow pierced her left shoulder.

“ _NO!_ ” Evie screamed as a howl sounded from deep in the forest. She watched in horror as another bolt slammed into her upper arm as she turned away, cutting straight through the back of it. She stumbled in her cage, the roots reaching to hold her upright, and a third lodged itself between two ribs on her left side.

Three of the wolves in the clearing turned tail and ran in the direction the shots had come from. A sharp yelp followed their progress, but Evie barely heard it.

“ _Lupa_!”

One more high-pitched scream lifted the birds from the trees, and it cut off abruptly, just like those of his fellows.

The little clearing finally fell silent. Evie stood rooted in place, frozen in horror at what had been done to the little elf only feet away from her. She finally came to herself and pushed her way past the roots holding her in when Romulus streaked out from between the trees, snow white fur disheveled and stained, covered in blood.

Lupa sank to her knees. She was covered in blood, too, her lips turning blue, but Evie knew she would have lost  _way_  more blood if those arrows hadn’t stuck in her.  _Is this one of those small miracles I’m supposed to thank the Maker for?_

Fighting? Fighting was something that Evie Trevelyan didn’t do. But healing?

“Eve…”

“Shush, don’t talk, it’s okay. Do you trust me, Lupa?”

The elf nodded immediately.

“I’m going to slow your heart rate, okay? It’s going to put you to sleep.”

“Will it-” Lupa coughed and groaned.  _Did that arrow pierce a lung? Shit._  “Will it hurt?”

“No, I promise, it won’t.”

Lupa nodded again, and closed her eyes.

Evie placed a hand over Lupa’s heart and let the magic flow from her in a steady stream. Lupa’s eyelids fluttered shut, and her breathing slowed. It was still too shallow, and she was wheezing a little.  _Definitely pierced a lung._

Now that she was asleep, this would actually be easy. One hand to pull the arrow out, one to stitch everything back together right away. It was  _easy_ , she’d done this before, so why were her hands shaking?

Nevermind her hands,  _she_  was shaking, and tears were falling, and Evie was barely able to hold herself together.

_So much blood._

Romulus leaned on her side, and she turned to look at him. She stared into his cold blue eyes until she was able to draw enough strength from them to steady her hands and her ragged emotions.

“Thank you,” she mumbled, and then she grabbed the shaft of the arrow between Lupa’s ribs with her right hand, while her left twisted her power, ready to put her new lover back together.

_Maker, you just gave her to me. Please don’t take her from me now._

She pulled, and the arrow popped free, spraying her hand with a fountain of blood. Her left hand covered the wound, and she let her power seep into it. Romulus started to itch his side next to her, and she finally slowed the pull of her magic when he relaxed and shook himself off.

The wound in her side had healed, leaving nothing more than a tiny little white scar where the puncture had been. She listened to Lupa’s breathing for a minute, and was happy to hear that it was clearer than before, her chest rising and falling more easily as her lungs filled up properly.

She moved to Lupa’s shoulder next, and then broke the shaft of the arrow through her arm, drawing it harmlessly out the other side, using both hands this time to close the wounds there. It took her about a quarter of an hour, and when she was done, she let Lupa continue to sleep for another quarter hour or so. If not for the blood all over them both, Lupa would have looked peaceful, the way she was laying there across Evie’s lap, her eyelids fluttering and her hair mussed, her mouth open just a sliver.

As Evie watched her, she remembered her days of wandering the Circle gardens, spending time with her favourite flowers… there was one rose bush in particular, with beautiful golden petals, like a sunset. The Amber Flush, it was called. She had always stolen cuttings from it to take up to her room, and she was always sad when they would wilt.

When she was still new to the Circle and her healing magic, she would try to keep those roses alive with her power. “Cutting a flower away from its roots is like refusing to feed a man,” Lydia had told her, all those years ago. “No amount of power can keep a starving man alive, just as no amount of power can keep your roses alive.”

This Amber Flush,  _her_  Amber Flush, would not wilt the way those delicate flowers did. She  _was_  delicate like them, so lean and willowy and tiny-boned, but she had just called down an entire forest on five Templars to keep her safe. This Amber Flush held power, and this Amber Flush would not dry up after a cutting.

This Amber Flush was not starving.

She  _was_  probably dehydrated, though, so Evie placed a hand over her heart again, drawing her slowly back to the world of the waking.

Lupa’s brows drew together as she grimaced, a little dimple forming between them, and she groaned quietly.

“Lupa?”

She opened her mouth to try to speak and immediately started to cough. They were dry, great and racking, and eventually she spat out some blood.

“How do you feel?” Evie got up and moved to sit in front of Lupa so she could see her properly.

“Tender,” Lupa admitted as she rolled her shoulder and stretched her arm, “but whole.”

“Stay still, I need to go get you a waterskin.”

When Evie turned around again, she found Lupa and Romulus sitting across from each other with their eyes closed and their foreheads pressed together. Around them were those left of the wolf pack Lupa had called, and even the eagles were still watching carefully from the trees.

When Lupa finally opened her eyes and leaned back from Rom a moment later, Evie took a timid step towards them. Every set of eyes in the clearing turned at once to look at her as soon as she moved, and she froze, taking in a short breath and holding it for a few seconds. When no one else moved again, she started to walk slowly back to Lupa’s side.

She dropped onto her knees, relieved, when she was less than a foot away, and silently handed Lupa the waterskin. She drank from it deeply and handed it back.

“ _Fen’lenen,”_  she called, and the wolves in the clearing turned as one back to her, heads high and ears perked. “ _Ma serannas. Ar lasa mala revas. Dareth shiral, fen’lenen.”_

Evie watched in awe as the wolves slowly began to sit up, their noses turned to the sky, and as one, they howled, their voices deafening in the tiny clearing. They continued for about half a minute, and then, in the distance, a faint response broke through the trees. The wolves stood and ran, hopping and leaping over the corpses in their way to reunite with the rest of their pack without another glance back.

Evie watched the place where the wolves had disappeared until she heard Lupa groan in discomfort next to her.

“I’d love to not move for another few days, but can we get out of here?”

Evie couldn’t help but laugh. She couldn’t have said it any better herself.


End file.
